1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle heater control apparatus for controlling a warmer (heater) provided to, for example, a seat or the like of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a vehicle such as a motorcycle or an automobile is provided with warmers for keeping respective parts warm. For example, warmers are provided to grip handle parts of a motorcycle, and warmers are provided to an accelerator part and seat parts of an automobile. A vehicle heater control apparatus controls electric power to be supplied to the warmers, to thereby keep respective parts warm and provide comfortable riding environment to a driver and a fellow passenger.
A conventional vehicle heater control apparatus includes a heater provided to a heated part of a vehicle, control means for controlling electric power to be supplied to the heater from a battery, vehicle speed detecting means for detecting a travel speed of the vehicle, and temperature monitoring means for monitoring the temperature of the heated part, and the control means varies the electric power to be supplied to the heater depending on a vehicle speed signal from the vehicle speed detecting means and a temperature signal from the temperature monitoring means, to thereby control the temperature of the heated part to be kept constant (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-255078).
A currently dominant temperature setting method for the heater control uses two temperature setting switches for increasing and decreasing the temperature, respectively. Another temperature setting method uses one temperature setting switch to perform rotary temperature setting. Note that, the rotary temperature setting refers to setting in which the set temperature once reaches the upper limit set value and then returns to the lower limit set value as in the order of “low temperature→intermediate temperature→high temperature→low temperature→intermediate temperature→high temperature→low temperature . . . . ”
Specifically, in the conventional vehicle heater control apparatus, a passenger operates the temperature setting switch to set a desired temperature, and the control means judges whether the vehicle is in a traveling state or in a stopped state from the vehicle speed signal, and obtains the temperature of the heated part from the temperature signal, to thereby vary the electric power to be supplied to the heater so that the heated part is kept at the set temperature.
However, the conventional technology has the following problems.
In the vehicle heater control apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-255078, there is a need to provide the special temperature setting switch, and the temperature monitoring means such as a thermister for monitoring the temperature of the heated part, which leads to a problem of an increased cost. Further, the control means varies the electric power to be supplied to the heater by feedback control based on the temperature signal from the temperature monitoring means, which leads to another problem of complicated control.